A 72-BED Travelodge hotel is to rise up next to the Cardiff City Stadium under new plans submitted by two Bluebirds directors.

A 72-BED Travelodge hotel is to rise up next to the Cardiff City Stadium under new plans submitted by two Bluebirds directors.

If planning permission is granted, Paul Guy and Mike Hall hope construction of the five-storey building on Leckwith Road will start in March.

The plans have been lodged with Cardiff council by Capital Retail Park Partnership, which is owned by the pair’s commercial property firm PNG.

A hotel was always included in the masterplan for the stadium development, but a local councillor last night expressed concern it would add to traffic congestion in the area.

The vacant site, which overlooks Jubilee Recreation Ground, was bought from Cardiff City for £1.8m at the height of the club’s financial problems.

The hotel will sit above 7,500sq ft of retail, with the potential for up to five shops and/or restaurants on the ground floor.

Access will be from an existing access road off Leckwith Road and there will be parking for 105 cars.

Canton’s Labour councillor Richard Cook said he would ask council transport officers to investigate ways to mitigate any increased congestion.

“We already get complaints about traffic queuing on Broad Street (off Leckwith Road) and having something else on that site is inevitably going to increase traffic,” he said.

The plot, which also includes the Sand Martin pub and KFC drive-through, was sold to Cardiff Retail in January 2010 to provide the Bluebirds with cash to pay off a debt to HM Revenue and Customs ahead of a High Court hearing that could have seen the club wound up.

In June this year, Mr Hall rejoined the Bluebirds board of directors after an agreement between PNG and the club’s Malaysian backers.

Cardiff City said PMG had turned a “significant sum” of owed debt into equity, but the exact figures involved in the deal were never disclosed.

Capital Retail owns Capital Shopping Park, which was created as part of the stadium development. Outline planning consent was secured last year for a seven-storey 142-bedroom hotel on the site.